Thursday, July 13, 2017

1977 - Watson’s Cool Helped Him Collect

Dave Watson

Madison,
Wis. (July 13, 1977) - Dave Watson has had his first taste of the big time, the
good and the not so good of it.

Watson,
a 31-year-old Milton resident who grew up in Beloit, has been steadily taking
over as the king of the nation's stock car short tracks, a position he assumed
from previous Wisconsin monarchs Tom Reffner and Dick Trickle.

Watson
led the nation a year ago with 41 short track victories in 76 events entered
and this season he's leading the newly formed American Speed Association
standings by 250 points with 19 of the scheduled 29 races finished.

Sunday,
July 10, he ran for the first time at the famed Milwaukee Mile, the asphalt oval track
at State Fair Park in West Allis. All he did in his rookie appearance was whip
everyone and win the USAC-sanctioned Miller 200 with drivers of the capability of Bobby
Allison, who finished five seconds back in second place, Bobby Unser, Don White
and Ramo Stott in his wake.

But
things weren’t entirely easy for Watson. He was held up a lap in the pits as a
penalty for passing cars in the backstretch under the yellow caution flag,
something other drivers got away with.

Shortly
after he roared past Allison on lap 158 to take the lead for good, United
States Auto Club (USAC) officials had the binoculars out watching him going
down the straight.

“They
told us his right rear tire was chunking off and we’d have to call him in,”
said one of Watson's crewmen.

Car
owner Dave Deppe of Baraboo told USAC something a little to the contrary and Watson
didn't even hear about the incident until after the race when he said the car
felt fine.

Almost
an hour after the victory, USAC officials still were combing Watson’s car for
violations. Routinely, the top five finishers at Milwaukee stock car races are
torn down for inspection but the perusals usually don't go beyond a quick check
of the engine and gas tank.

Deppe
was called in to the impound area during the inspection and was engaged in
conversation with officials for over half an hour before the car finally was
cleared and the change it. “The only thing is, they gave us a legal inspection
sticker before we started the race that said the car was all right. But we'll
change it. It’ll only make the car go faster as far as I'm concerned.”Asked afterward what the trouble was, Deppe said, “The biggest problem was that a rookie driver and a guy that owns a garbage truck business won a race."

Deppe is president of D and D Disposal Company in Baraboo as well as road construction and crane rental businesses.

“They had some problem with some of the paneling and bodywork on the car," Deppe said, elaborating on some of the discussion. “They tell me now I've got to change it,” he said.

The
car, a 1977 Buick Skylark with a 350-cubic inch Chevrolet engine from Prototype
Engineering of Wheeling, Ill., carried Watson over the threshold into the world
of big league stock car racing. He and Deppe are planning to run all the USAC
stock car races on asphalt continuing with Sunday's 200 miler at Michigan
International Speedway.

Watson
displayed patience and intelligence, both on and off the track. Neither of these
qualities will hurt him as a race driver. A perfect example of his patience is
the way he waited for the right opportunity to run at Milwaukee.

“It’s
been three years since I really thought I was geared up and could run here,”
Watson said in his post-race interview Sunday. “I felt I was capable of driving
with this kind of competition but three years ago, I didn't have the
equipment.”

And
there were other reasons, which almost forced the move at this time.

“I'd
kind of reached a plateau in short track racing,” he declared. "We won everything there was to win in short track racing. We won 41 features last year. We couldn't go anywhere else but down."He showed patience, too, when, midway through the race, at the first of two crucial yellow flags which he needed to erase his penalty lap, he calmly waited a couple of laps to shoot into the pits for refueling.

“We wanted the pace to settle down,” he said, explaining his delay. “We wanted everybody to get their position established. Sometimes the pace car doesn't get out there and pick up the leader right away and a long race like this can be pretty tedious on the scorers. So sometimes it's to your advantage to wait until everything is settled down and your position is established.

Finally,
he is not awed by such stock car legends as Allison. He has raced Allison
before on the short tracks and, though he doesn't speak of him with any lack of
respect, he speaks of him as an equal.

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Preserving the history of Midwest Auto Racing

So much racing history has been made through the years right here in the Midwest.

From the rich dirt ovals in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska to the paved short tracks in Minnesota and Wisconsin, some of the best drivers ever to get behind the wheel of a race car competed right here in the heartland.

We all have our own story to share about our favorite driver who thrilled us everytime they rolled onto the track or that one particular race that still stands out as the greatest they ever saw.

We'll go back in history, 10, 20, 30, 40, even 50 years ago (even more) and reminisce about what has made racing in the Midwest so special for us.